KYC Expands to Kane County

Ken­neth Young Cen­ter is proud to expand its Teen Preg­nan­cy and Sex­u­al­ly Trans­mit­ted Infec­tions Pre­ven­tion through a gen­er­ous $50,000 grant from the Office of Ado­les­cent Health (OAH) and the Illi­nois Depart­ment of Human Ser­vices (IDHS) to serve Kane Coun­ty mid­dle school and high school youth. KYC’s team works direct­ly with youth and fam­i­lies to pro­mote pos­i­tive, evi­dence-based edu­ca­tion to inform and sup­port youth to make healthy lifestyle choic­es. Through Youth Advi­so­ry Coun­cils based out of each school served, youth learn and work togeth­er to cre­ate com­mu­ni­ca­tion cam­paigns, edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als, and teen preg­nan­cy pre­ven­tion activ­i­ties that fos­ter safe envi­ron­ments for stu­dents to learn about HIV, AIDS, and oth­er sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted infec­tions. KYC staff prac­tice a trau­ma-informed approach to teach­ing youth in their class­rooms about healthy com­mu­ni­ca­tion and skills to reduce risky behav­ior, includ­ing fre­quent dis­cus­sions focused on mutu­al consent.

Over the com­ing weeks, KYC will be hir­ing a Health Edu­ca­tor to focus specif­i­cal­ly on work­ing with mid­dle and high schools in Kane Coun­ty to deliv­er their youth pre­ven­tion edu­ca­tion cur­ric­u­la and build local con­tacts for a Com­mu­ni­ty Advi­so­ry Group, includ­ing key stake­hold­ers’ input from health­care, law enforce­ment, local leg­is­la­tors, com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers, and reli­gious orga­ni­za­tions. The com­pre­hen­sive com­mu­ni­ty approach tack­les cur­rent trends and con­cerns relat­ed to healthy com­mu­ni­ties and ties close­ly to KYC’s drug and alco­hol pre­ven­tion pro­grams sup­port­ing youth, vet­er­ans, Native Amer­i­cans, and the LGBTQ+ community.

To learn more about this pro­gram or get involved, con­tact Ken­neth Young Cen­ter at (847) 285‑4517.